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The Grammatical Realization of Polarity Contrast: Theoretical, empirical, and typological approaches
Edited by Christine Dimroth and Stefan Sudhoff
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 249] 2018
► pp. 89–108

Complementizers and negative polarity in German hypothetical comparatives

| University of Potsdam

The article examines the synchronic and diachronic relation between German hypothetical comparatives and ordinary comparatives. While the presence of an overt equative complementizer is not universally obligatory, it is so in hypothetical comparatives, whereas a conditional complementizer may be absent. This is because the equative complementizer in hypothetical comparatives functions as the licenser of the conditional clause in monoclausal hypothetical comparatives, and in this sense, it is a polarity marker. This difference regarding function accounts for the fact that German allows als in hypothetical comparatives but not in equatives: while the combinations als ob and als wenn historically derive from biclausal constructions, the reanalysis into monoclausal constructions allowed the fossilization of a complementizer without reference to changes affecting ordinary equatives.

Keywords: complementizer, conditional clause, equatives, hypothetical comparatives, reanalysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The typology of hypothetical comparatives
  • 3.Operators and polarity
  • 4.Syntax and grammaticalization
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.249.03bac
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